A frantic final hour on Day 1 of qualifying saw a number of drivers make last ditch attempts to crack the top 9 or retain position within the top 9 ahead of Sunday's pole shootout. In the end, James Hinchcliffe ended the day as the fast driver ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had to bump teammate Marco Andretti out of the top 9 to do so. Other drivers to qualify for the run for the pole were, Mikhail Aleshin Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Townsend Bell, Josef Newgarden, Carlos Munoz and Simon Pagenaud.

"It was pretty good. I mean it was really good. What am I talking about?" quipped Hinchcliffe, whose best Indy 500 start is second in 2012. "Huge credit to the Schmidt Peterson Motorsport guys. They've worked so hard on these race cars since back in February. We've got three quick ones. I mean, the No. 77 and the No. 7 were quick as well."

Among the drivers who worked their way in the final minutes was Hinchcliffe's teammate Mikhail Aleshin, who cracked the top 9 with the final run of the day. "I just managed to go out on track and that was my only chance to get up there," said Aleshin, who made three qualifying attempts during the day. "You know, with team help I obviously used it for 100 percent. I want to congratulate the team, all the team with the results that we had. I think all the team is very strong and especially James' results shows it. I think it's a good official start of the weekend."

A number of heavy hitters missed out on qualifying for the pole shootout. The most notable of that was group was Chip Ganassi Racing, with none of their four drivers higher than 13th. At the end of the day, Dixon ranked the highest (13th), followed by Tony Kanaan (19th) and Charlie Kimball (25th). Rookie Max Chilton did not make an attempt after a crash in morning practice forced his team to prepare the backup car. "It obviously wasn't the result we wanted today for Team Target so we just have to keep working on things," said Dixon, who sat on the pole in 2015. "The field is really close and there are some guys out there who really put some speed on the time sheets today. We'll keep working hard and hopefully get things pointed in the right direction."

Times will now be wiped clean as the grid will be set tomorrow for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

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